3rd top FTX executive pleads guilty in fraud probe

A former high-ranking colleague of Sam BankmanFried on Tuesday became the third person to plead guilty to criminal charges arising from the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and agree to cooperate with federal prosecutors.

Nishad Singh, 27, an FTX founder who went on to serve as the company's director of engineering, pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, money laundering and campaign finance violations. The plea requires him to work with federal prosecutors as they pursue the billion-dollar fraud case against Bankman-Fried.

“Today's guilty plea underscores once again that the crimes at FTX were vast in scope and consequence,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.

Andrew D. Goldstein and Russell Capone, Singh's lawyers, said in a statement that “Nishad is deeply sorry for his role in this and has accepted responsibility for his actions.”

The charges against Singh carry a maximum prison term of 75 years, though plea deals often result in significantly reduced sentences.

Singh's cooperation heightens the pressure on Bankman-Fried, 30, who has been charged with orchestrating a scheme to use billions in customer deposits to finance political contributions, fund more than 300 ventures and cover other lavish spending. Bankman-Fried was extradited to the United States on Dec. 21 after his arrest in the Bahamas, where FTX was based. That night, federal prosecutors announced that two executives in his inner circle, Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, were cooperating with the investigation and had pleaded guilty to fraud.

Singh was a key figure at FTX. In the plea agreement, authorities said Singh had knowledge of or participated in an effort “to artificially inflate FTX's revenue,” and that he had provided false or misleading information to auditors and regulators.

On Tuesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission also filed civil complaints against Singh.